1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to the initial drying of seed cotton in a cotton gin, and in particular, to an apparatus for and a method of controlling the initial drying of seed cotton in a cotton gin.
2. Background Art
A modern cotton gin includes several coacting subsystems or stages. Seed cotton (i.e., raw cotton from the cotton field) usually arrives at the cotton gin loosely packed in large trailers or tightly compressed in large modules. The seed cotton is delivered to some type of seed cotton feeder that might include a module feeder to break-up and disperse tightly packed cotton module into a loose conveyable form, and/or a conveyor means such as a screw, belt or suction pipe to convey the loose conveyable seed cotton to initial stage of the ginning process, typically a seed cotton initial dryer stage using heated air to reduce the moisture content of the seed cotton. Such a seed cotton initial dryer stage normally include gas or oil-fired heaters for heating the air used to convey the seed cotton from the seed cotton feeder, to reduce the moisture content of the seed cotton to some desired moisture level for efficient cleaning and ginning (this moisture level is normally set by the gin management). After the seed cotton dryer stage, the seed cotton commonly passes through a rough cleaning stage to remove leaves, small trash, sticks, etc., therefrom. The partially processed seed cotton is then transferred to one or more gin stands for xe2x80x9cginning,xe2x80x9d i.e., for separation of the cotton seed and fiber. A typical cotton gin may have three or more gin stands. After ginning, the cotton fiber is typically referred to as xe2x80x9clint cottonxe2x80x9d or just xe2x80x9clint.xe2x80x9d The lint may then pass through a lint cleaning stage to remove any small trash or dirt remaining in the lint, and then be carried through a lint flue or the like to a battery condenser for being formed into a continuous batt and discharged onto a lint slide. The batt is conveyed down the lint slide to a bale press where the batt is compressed and formed into one or more cotton bales. Each bale may then be tied with bailing wire and wrapped with plastic, etc., before being stored or transferred to a warehouse, textile mill, etc.
Nothing in the known prior art, either singly or in combination, discloses or suggests the present invention.
The present invention includes an apparatus for and a method of controlling the initial seed cotton dryer stage of seed cotton in a cotton gin. The concept of the present invention is to precisely control the drying of seed cotton in the initial seed cotton dryer stage of a cotton gin in order to provide high quality ginned cotton at a lower cost by removing only the precise amount of moisture from the seed cotton to arrive at the desired moisture content of the seed cotton. The basic concept is to determine the amount of energy needed to remove a certain amount (pounds) of water from seed cotton entering a cotton gin.
The apparatus of the present invention includes means for measuring the rate of seed cotton entering a seed cotton dryer stage; means for measuring the moisture content of the seed cotton entering the seed cotton dryer stage; and means for causing the seed cotton dryer stage to remove an amount of moisture from the seed cotton based on the desired moisture content of the seed cotton after leaving the seed cotton dryer stage, the moisture content of the seed cotton entering the seed cotton dryer stage, and the rate of seed cotton entering the seed cotton dryer stage.
The method of the present invention includes the steps of measuring the rate of seed cotton entering a seed cotton dryer stage; measuring the moisture content of the seed cotton entering the seed cotton dryer stage; and controlling the seed cotton dryer stage to cause the seed cotton dryer stage to remove an amount of moisture from the seed cotton based on the desired moisture content of the seed cotton leaving the seed cotton dryer stage, the moisture content of the seed cotton entering the seed cotton dryer stage, and the rate of seed cotton entering the seed cotton dryer stage.
One object of the present invention is to provide an accurate apparatus and method for removing a precise amount of moisture from seed cotton in the seed cotton drying stage of a cotton gin.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such an apparatus and method that reduces the energy used to remove moisture from seed cotton in the seed cotton drying stage of a cotton gin to a minimum.